Erosion threatens bird habitat at Lake Conroe

Birds like this blue heron may start spilling into neighborhoods if their Lake Conroe island disappears.

Birds like this blue heron may start spilling into neighborhoods if their Lake Conroe island disappears.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

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Bird Island, a small bird sanctuary on Lake Conroe, is in jeopardy because of erosion caused by waves and drought. About half of the island has disappeared in the past few years, prompting calls to save it.

Bird Island, a small bird sanctuary on Lake Conroe, is in jeopardy because of erosion caused by waves and drought. About half of the island has disappeared in the past few years, prompting calls to save it.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

Image 3 of 3

Bird Island, a small bird sanctuary on Lake Conroe, is in jeopardy because of erosion caused by waves and drought. About half of the island has disappeared in the past few years, prompting calls to save it.

Bird Island, a small bird sanctuary on Lake Conroe, is in jeopardy because of erosion caused by waves and drought. About half of the island has disappeared in the past few years, prompting calls to save it.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

Erosion threatens bird habitat at Lake Conroe

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In Lake Conroe, not far from bulkheads shielding homes in the Seven Coves neighborhood from water, sits Bird Island. At least what's left of it.

This grass skirt of mushy land is a hangout for blue herons, cattle egrets and double-crested cormorants, among other birds warbling from the shrubs. The lively scene, particularly at dawn and dusk of nesting season, is unique for the man-made lake, which is known more for its wide open waters and recreational fishing.

But the bird sanctuary is in jeopardy because of erosion caused by waves and drought. About half of the island has disappeared in the past few years, prompting calls to save the thoroughly exposed spit before the last remaining acre is completely washed away.

"It's all white in the mornings because that's where they roost," Seven Coves resident Jim Roach said, referring to the snowy plumage. "It would be cool if it was there for another 40 years."

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Lack of funding

Roach, who can see the sanctuary from his backyard, is trying to rally others to bolster the islet. The effort is in its early stages, and there are no engineering plans, no cost estimates and no funding sources, so far. But with enough money, officials could build up the land with dredge spoils, plant trees and other vegetation to hold it in place and set large rocks around it for protection from waves.

The benefits, Roach said, would go beyond the birds. The riprap, or rocky shoreline, would provide habitat for largemouth bass, channel catfish and bluegill, among other fish species.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said it supports the idea, as does the San Jacinto River Authority, which manages the lake nearly 60 miles north of downtown Houston. But both agencies said they have no money for the project.

"It's not a major concern for us," said Bret Raley, who manages the Lake Conroe division for the river authority. "It's just there."

Destructive waves

The shrinking island is easy to overlook. On any given day, the waters of the lake are plied by bass boats, pontoons and high-powered Jet Skis. It's a 21,000-acre playground framed by trophy houses and piney woods. It's also a source of drinking water for Montgomery County and Houston.

Serious bird watchers tend to know about Bird Island, and those living near the islet consider it a neighborhood attraction - a lakeside park provides benches for viewing the birds. Most residents, however, are unaware.

Roach, a senior tax counsel for Exxon Mobil, said he began to notice erosion the past few years as drought punished the area. The isle's trees died, and many plants withered, leaving land vulnerable to encroaching waves.

"It was twice as big as it is now," Roach said.

Even as waves erase the isle, it continues to be filled with colonial waterbirds. They prefer to roost in isolated places near good forage, said Richard Gibbons, conservation director for the Houston Audubon Society, which has offered to help line up partners in an effort to save the island.

"If that island goes away, I don't know where they would end up," Gibbons said of the birds. "They may start spilling into the neighborhood."

A habitat crisis

The push to save Bird Island comes at a time when most conservation efforts are focused along the Texas coast, where there is a greater variety of birds and more land loss because of rising seas and subsidence, a geological condition in which soils sink.

At the same time, surveys are showing fewer nests for some colonial waterbirds, a downward trend attributed to the loss of habitat, said Jim Lester, the scientist who leads the Houston Advanced Research Center in The Woodlands.

Although bolstering Bird Island isn't one of its priorities, the San Jacinto River Authority has done similar work before. In 2004, the agency spent $50,000 to stop erosion at Ayers Island, a popular patch of grass for boaters on Lake Conroe to have picnics.

How to save an island

That island shrank from four acres to less than two acres before the agency built a concrete wall on one side of it to block the wave action from increasing boat traffic.

Raley, the authority's Lake Conroe manager, said a similar project would be done differently today - with boulders instead of a bulkhead to provide fish habitat and dissipate wave energy more effectively. Such work on Bird Island would be worth doing, he said.

Mark Webb, an inland fisheries biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, agreed, but warned that the work could take years to complete.

"It's very much doable," he said of the Bird Island project, "if someone has the funding."